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The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

I write the kinds of novels I like to read, where the setting is rendered with love and care.

I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.

I'm not really a plot writer - I'm more interested in the characters and sort of small events that propel the story forward.

I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior.

Honestly, I get character ideas from the most inane places. Sometimes a song will give me an idea. Sometimes I will just hear a snippet of conversation that ends up having nothing to do with the book that emerges.

Novels for me are how I find out what's going on in my own head. And so that's a really useful and indeed critical thing to do when you do as many of these other things as I do.

Characters develop as the book progresses, but any that start to bore me end up in the wastepaper basket. In real life, we may have to put up with tedious people, but not in novels.

What fascinates me as a writer is the stuff underneath, To me, what drives a novel is the curiosity behind the character and the depths that you want to find in that character.

I always love novels that open up a subject to me - like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.